The Sufis

<a href="spotify:artist:252Qg4E3R9CHhd7qeeiMpD" data-name="The Sufis">The Sufis</a> have returned in 2020 with Double Exposure, which over the course of its 10 tracks finds <a href="spotify:artist:252Qg4E3R9CHhd7qeeiMpD" data-name="The Sufis">The Sufis</a> exploring new dimensions of their outsider stylings, combining introspective mutant pop sounds alongside paranoid psychedelic excursions. Drawing influence from elements as disparate as <a href="spotify:artist:4qwGe91Bz9K2T8jXTZ815W" data-name="Janet Jackson">Janet Jackson</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:42TFhl7WlMRXiNqzSrnzPL" data-name="Lou Reed">Lou Reed</a>, Double Exposure may be <a href="spotify:artist:252Qg4E3R9CHhd7qeeiMpD" data-name="The Sufis">The Sufis</a> most varied effort to date.

<a href="spotify:artist:252Qg4E3R9CHhd7qeeiMpD" data-name="The Sufis">The Sufis</a> are an American band based on the writing partnership of Calvin Laporte and Evan Smith. Originally based in Nashville, their first recordings quickly caught the attention of Ben and Tjinder of <a href="spotify:artist:3Kf7VEIRWquxrNIuyJZnfF" data-name="Cornershop">Cornershop</a> who released their self-titled debut album on Ample Play Records in 2012.

Upon release <a href="spotify:album:4arUiSsmtK2aCZ7d2yLisC" data-name="The Sufis">The Sufis</a> was named Rough Trade Album of the Month and received praise from The Times, Shindig!, Record Collector, and Rolling Stone’s David Fricke who called it “an extended reach into the droning minimalism of <a href="spotify:artist:1nJvji2KIlWSseXRSlNYsC" data-name="The Velvet Underground">The Velvet Underground</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4yBBNmdvVaoPEnr2lt14q7" data-name="Faust">Faust</a>&#39;s tape manipulation.” They quickly followed up with Inventions in 2013, an attempt to consolidate their love of <a href="spotify:artist:5ixdD9E7P9r51AOcSInQbl" data-name="The Shaggs">The Shaggs</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:50yovZJnAHoy0pBruvFaCR" data-name="Wesley Willis">Wesley Willis</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5aIqB5nVVvmFsvSdExz408" data-name="Johann Sebastian Bach">Johann Sebastian Bach</a>.

The next few years found <a href="spotify:artist:252Qg4E3R9CHhd7qeeiMpD" data-name="The Sufis">The Sufis</a> focusing on production duties for <a href="spotify:artist:5kkPO8WAvC4FKr09O2xy9g" data-name="The Paperhead">The Paperhead</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2d7BGRvhNBAvM84T9BA96y" data-name="Peter Stringer-Hye">Peter Stringer-Hye</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5eU6lgm3OtKPgPVITXlVwo" data-name="Paul Messis">Paul Messis</a>/The Market Squares and others before relocating to NYC, where after a short stint of working and studying with <a href="spotify:artist:5h2yl4fuAyztOOBgMRyQhE" data-name="La Monte Young">La Monte Young</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:56vZkJR9Jj4Johg2cWqwqK" data-name="Marian Zazeela">Marian Zazeela</a> they completed 2018’s After Hours (a “dusky, resplendent gem” said Tiny Mix Tapes).

Double Exposure is out now.